Tamil Nadu reported 1,663 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking the total case count in the State to 7,68,340.
It also reported 18 more deaths and 2,133 recoveries. The total deaths and recoveries in the State stood at 11,586 and 7,43,838 respectively.
Chennai reported 486 cases. Six other districts recorded more than 50 cases. They were Coimbatore (148), Chengalpattu (116), Tiruvallur (114), Kancheepuram (92), Tiruppur (70) and Salem (66). Chennai and these six districts accounted for more than 65% of all the cases reported on Saturday.
Six other districts reported less than ten cases, while Perambalur did not report any case on Saturday.
Of the 18 persons who succumbed to the infection on Saturday, 11 deaths happened in government hospitals and the remaining seven took place in private hospitals. All the deceased had co-morbidities, according to a medical bulletin released by the Health and Family Welfare Department.
Six persons succumbed to the infection in Chennai. The remaining 12 deaths were reported from eight districts.
The youngest among the deceased was a 35-year-old man from Coimbatore who had diabetes. He was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on November 6 after testing positive for COVID-19. He died on November 19.
The oldest was a 93-year-old woman from Chennai. She had tested positive for COVID-19 on November 12 and was admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital the next day. She died three days later. Fourteen of the 18 people were above 60 years.
Meanwhile, the number of persons who tested for COVID-19 continued to gradually go up after a drop during Deepavali last week. As many as 68,479 persons were tested on Saturday.
The test positivity rate continued to drop and stood at 2.43% on Saturday.
One government lab and two more private labs in the State were authorised to conduct RT-PCR tests for COVID-19. A total of 217 labs in Tamil Nadu are eligible to conduct COVID-19 tests now, including 67 government and 150 private laboratories.